To understand laser damage mechanisms using nano-second pulsed laser, different tools have been developed. Indeed, one challenge today is to exhibit nano-absorbing centers, supposed to be the main precursors of damage. In general, for practical reasons these tools involve a shopped CW laser, associated with a lock-in amplifier in order to exhibit local absorption in materials. Most often, no evident correlation appears between the zone revealed by the CW pump and the damage site created with pulsed laser shoot. The aim of this paper is to investigate this point, by similar experiments using both CW and pulsed laser. We will show results obtained on materials with different absorption level, using standard CW/pulsed photothermal techniques and atomic force microscopy morphology studies. A direct consequence of this study is also to evaluate the contribution of thermal effect in the laser damage process, to highlight if the case arises with other kind of mechanisms.